In the quiet of the dawn, there were two individuals who found themselves in the woods: A man, young and full of life, discovered traits about himself that he could relate to the creatures of the forest, peering at him with curiosity that he matched without effort; and a woman, whose intelligence was sharper than any blade, that found joy in observing nature for her lifestyle. These two lived in separate villages, but the forest acted as a bridge that would bring them together.

They met in a fashion that was not very conventional; while, one day, the man was sitting at the base of a tree, the woman was also maneuvering through the branches above his head. Hearing the shifting above, the man began ascending towards the sky.

The woman had stopped, allowing the man to begin catching up to her height. She, hearing the noises coming from below her feet, had been waiting to see what was coming to greet her.

An empty branch stuck out from the trunk of the tree, a few feet below the woman and a few feet above the man. The two, seeing each other there in the tree, both met each other on the branch.

And almost immediately the branch snapped, sending them plummeting towards the ground.

The man and the woman lay there on the ground for a while, both gasping, until the man began laughing. When the woman inquired as to why he was chuckling, the man replied that he was incredibly happy to be alive and in her presence. The woman heard this statement and began smiling.

From then on, a partnership between the two was formed. They had just found the company they had been longing for, the kind that the forest could not provide.

They established a pattern: in the morning, they would meet at the tree they first saw each other and commence their wandering. The two explored the caves, the streams, the trees of the woods. Sometimes they talked as they did this, but other times the silence between them was comfortable.

It was not a challenging step for either of them to take when they became lovers. If anything, it was freeing, because there were no longer any barriers between the two. They reveled in the knowledge that the other person was a book that they had the option of opening to any page.

One day, the man bid the woman farewell as the sun set, as he always did. But instead of going back to his home as he was prone to do, the man stayed in the forest with the thought that if he collected berries for the woman, she could make a treat of them.

He scoured the forest as the sun began to dip down towards the ground, his eyes scanning bushes and trees alike. He continued to do this even as it became harder to see.

Eventually he came upon a bush that sat near a stream he’d come across before. The bush was dotted so thickly with berries that one could hardly tell it was a bush to begin with.

The man enthusiastically began plucking off the fruit, using the front of his shirt as a pouch. When it got so full that berries were rolling off of the pile of themselves, he turned to begin walking back.

Had it been light out, the man would have seen that the rocks by the stream were loose. However, the darkness was too severe for him to notice this.

His foot came out from underneath him, and the man fell towards the ground. His head soundly came in contact with a rock, and he stilled.

The berries he had been collecting rolled into the stream.

The next morning, the woman eagerly awaited for the man to come to their tree. However, the sun continued to rise, and still no sight of him.

The woman became worried that the man was ill, but had no means to contact her in her village.

Determined, the woman began searching through the forest, unsure which direction would lead to his home, but focused to find her lover.

Eventually, she did find him.

The form on the ground appeared to be the man. However, it wasn't human.

Multiple rocks were laid out on the ground in the shape of the man. Moss decorated a small group of them, seeming to capture what the man’s face had looked like in life.

As the woman began to sob, mourning the loss of her lover, she heard something in her ear. It sounded like the wind, but she could pick out a familiar voice.

Looking up, she realized that her lover’s reflection was staring back at her from the water of the stream.

Overjoyed that he was staring at her with open eyes, the woman asked him what had happened. The man explained that he had been picking berries for her, but slipped on a rock and hit his head.

The man then went on to tell her that after he had closed his eyes for the last time, he had become part of the forest. His spirit could roam because his body became part of nature.

The woman expressed her desire to be with him. At first he was adamant that she go back to her village and resume the life she should be living.

But the woman glared at her lover’s reflection and stated that she had only just begun living the moment she had met him.

Suddenly, the nature seemed to shift around her. The woman did not scream, but she felt mildly afraid as her hands fell to the ground on no account of her own and her knees gave out from underneath her.

Then, she felt a light weight against her left hand. Squinting, the woman could see that the man was crouching in front of her, his hand covering hers.

This was comfort enough.

Her veins slid out of her skin, but the woman was not in pain. She watched, fascinated, as they wormed their way into the ground.

Slowly at first, the woman felt her life leaving her. The process did not feel harmful; instead, she was merely tired. Her eyelids began to droop and her skin started to feel very odd, like it wasn't hers to begin with.

At last, she exhaled her last breath.

When the woman opened her eyes, she felt lighter. Standing, she turned around and gasped.

A tree stood where her body had been, dark-brown bark and leaves that felt as soft as her hair had been.

But what was most surprising was that she could see herself in the way that the bark of the tree was cracked.

Someone tapped her shoulder. When she turned around, the woman saw the man.

He looked just as alive as he had when she’d first met him. His skin seemed to glow with light, as did his eyes, and his smile was wider than the moon.

The woman took his hand with a grin.

The two began running as fast as they could, overjoyed that they had forever to explore their woods.

And that is how the forest came to be known as the Forest of the Lovers.